Watchdog Alleges Virginia Prepping to Accommodate Mass Voter Fraud

Officials stockpile a million provisional ballots in swing state governed by a close Clinton ally

Virginia has printed 1 million provisional ballots, an unprecedented number that could allow a large number of previously disqualified felons to cast ballots for president in the potentially crucial swing state.

George, a conservative election watchdog, charged on Monday that the Virginia Department of Elections is overpreparing for worst-case scenarios and increasing the likelihood of illegal votes being cast. In reply to Republican complaints earlier this month, Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Edgardo Cortés acknowledged officials are preparing for all contingencies, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

But George said the provisional ballot printing doesn’t make sense even for contingencies. And it doesn’t compare to demand in 2012.

“The claim that it is for contingency planning is bogus,” George said in an email. “In 2012, Stafford County used less [sic] than 500 provisional ballots — in 2016 they received 30,000. In 2012, Loudoun County used 700 provisional ballots. In 2016, they received 84,000. In 2012, Fairfax used 2,500 provisional ballots; in 2016, they received over 265,000. This is ridiculous.”

But spokeswoman Dena Potter of the Virginia Department of Elections said the state is trying to accommodate a court order.

"As part of its emergency preparedness efforts and in response to the [December] 2015 consent decree related to mitigating long lines at the polls, the Department issued guidance to local registrars on August 29, 2016, that included having enough provisional ballot envelopes to equal at least 20 percent of the number of active voters as of September 1," Potter said in an email. "As of September 30, there were 5.5 million voters registered in Virginia. As with any contingency planning, we hope that we don't have to use these but they will be available in case we do."

The decision to print so many provisional ballots comes after an April announcement by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat and a key ally of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. McAuliffe said he would allow more than 200,000 released felons to vote on Nov. 8.

The decision immediately brought a legal challenge from the Republicans, who won their suit in July. Virginia law says the governor must individually clear such cases, and cannot widely add so many released felons back to the voter rolls.

George believes the court loss is part of the thinking behind the surge in provisional ballots. The thousands of felons who signed up to vote after McAuliffe's order were initially welcomed to the voter rolls. George said left-wing voter groups were ready for the order, and signed up thousands of felons within hours.

If those felons now walk into a polling place and demand a ballot, they will be accommodated, George charged. George also said he is concerned other ineligible voters will be handed such provisional ballots simply if they demand them.

Provisional ballots are only counted by city and county election boards after Nov. 8, and Republicans should be prepared for things to go against them, George said. Each board has a Republican and a Democrat, and a McAuliffe appointee.

Virginia leaders have been dealing with election headaches for months. On Oct. 13, Virginia legislators questioned Cortés at a hearing. One Republican leader, citing election problems, called for Cortés to resign, according to the Times-Dispatch.

"I think it's incumbent upon the governor to replace you quickly with competent and nonpartisan leadership," said Delegate Timothy Hugo (R-Fairfax).

McAuliffe Involved in Shady Deals With the Chinese for Two Decades;
Feds probe whether McAuliffe campaign took illegal contributions from Chinese billionaire

BY: Brent Scher / Free Beacon / May 25, 2016

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.), who is under federal investigation for a $120,000 contribution his campaign took from a Chinese billionaire, has a two-decades-long history of controversial dealings with China. McAuliffe, who rolled his large network of wealthy businessmen and prolific fundraising ability into a political career for himself, has been criticized for doing inappropriate business with the Chinese since the early days of his career when he was fundraising for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns. McAuliffe’s work with China has even been investigated by the Department of Justice before.

The DOJ revealed in 1997 it had been investigating whether the Chinese Embassy was directing contributions to the Democratic Party in an effort to buy influence in the Clinton administration, according to a Washington Post report. McAuliffe was the man in charge of Clinton’s 1996 fundraising operation and was named in a federal corruption lawsuit, filed by Judicial Watch, that alleged that he was involved in the scheme.

“There are indications that Chinese efforts in connection with the 1996 elections were undertaken or orchestrated, at least in part, by People’s Republic of China intelligence agencies,” wrote federal investigators in a statement to the Senate.

McAuliffe was the architect of the Clinton fundraising strategy that brought big campaign donors into the White House to get them energized for the 1996 reelection effort. He wrote the infamous Lincoln Bedroom memo, which outlined how donors could pay their way into the White House for events such as having coffee with the president.> One major donor brought in through McAuliffe’s plan was Charlie Trie, who brought along the head of a Chinese military-owned weapons company for his coffee meeting with Clinton.

Clinton later admitted that he shouldn’t have had this meeting and returned the $640,000 Trie contributed to his legal defense fund due to “questions about the source of the funds.” Trie pleaded guilty to federal authorities in 1999 but won leniency for giving information to DOJ on how conduits like him were used to transfer foreign money to Clinton’s 1996 campaign.

Ten years later, the DOJ was investigating a McAuliffe fundraising operation again.

Eyebrows were raised in 2007 when Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, chaired by McAuliffe, raised $380,000 at a single dinner event in New York City’s Chinatown.

A Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that most of the attendees at the $1,000-a-plate dinner were not registered to vote and listed low-paying jobs such as dishwasher on campaign filings, leading to the conclusion that restaurant workers were being “used as proxies by other big donors.”

DOJ started contacting attendees to inquire whether they were coerced into giving money or did it on their own volition. Many said they were pressured to attend the event by Chinatown neighborhood associations controlled by powerful Chinese families associated with criminal enterprises such as gambling rings and human trafficking.

Shortly after the campaign, McAuliffe became involved in GreenTech Automotive, an electric car company that relied on Chinese investors that were using a government program to receive visas in return for their investment.

McAuliffe pressured government officials to overlook visa applications from Chinese investors that were denied due to national security fears, prompting an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security.

He quietly left the company as it came under focus during his gubernatorial campaign.

As Virginia’s governor, McAuliffe has maintained his close ties with China.-snip-

More at http://freebeacon.com/issues/terry-mcauliffe-involved-shady-deals-chinese-two-decades/

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